New U.S. Marines Littoral Combat Regiments Will Spearhead Fight Vs. China In Indo-Pacific

The U.S. Marine Corps is pushing forward with plans to organize, equip and train its first three "Marine Littoral Regiments" (MLRs) that will spearhead combat operations against the Chinese in the event of a future armed conflict in the Indo-Pacific region.

It was only last week the Marines made known their intention to stand-up, or make operational, their first MLR. These more mobile but heavily-armed fighting units will be designed to execute the Marines' island-hopping strategy against the People's Liberation Army Ground Force and the People's Liberation Army Navy Marine Corps.

Initial plans call for an MLR consisting of 1,800 to 2,000 Marines and U.S. Navy sailors. An MLR will comprise a Littoral Combat Team, a Littoral Anti-Air Battalion and a Littoral Logistics Battalion

Brig. Gen. Benjamin Watson, Vice Chief of Naval Research and Commanding General, Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, recently said the service plans to have the first MLR reach initial operational capability in Fiscal Year 2023, which starts October 2023. This MLR, the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment, will be based in Hawaii.

“There has been discussion of creating as many as three in the Pacific between now and 2030 and they would be forward-based in the Pacific, although they might–depending on the experimentation that we do–they might be rotational in terms of how we source some of the people that man these Marine Littoral Regiments,” said Watson.

“And then based on their -- where they’re home-based in the Pacific, elements would rotate on a regular basis further west,” he noted. “So working with allies and partners so that we persistently have a presence from each of the Marine Littoral Regiments out there in the western Pacific.”

Watson said the new MLRs can also fight in other geographies, including contested waters like the Black Sea near Russia or the Persian Gulf against Iran.

U.S. Marines

Watson described MLRs as fighting units optimized to fight and win in the complex littorals of the western Pacific. MLRs should also prove a useful tool for U.S. foreign policy in the Baltics, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Black Sea and any sort of close contested littoral terrain, according to Watson.

“So it’s a unit that’s designed to be lethal first and foremost, on land or at sea and from the land to the sea, to operate in distributed small units that are low signature and to bring capabilities that enable the larger naval or joint force, particularly in contested or a denied degraded environment.” (9 Feb. 2021)